The Garden
by dreaming-of-fireflies
Summary: What remains of everything Uchiha Itachi sacrifices himself for, he leaves to her to nourish until it blooms. Uchiha Itachi/OC, Two-Shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: 'Naruto', with all its characters and plot, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

This is a two shot I quickly wrote up the other day about one of my favourite characters ever, Itachi Uchiha, I think he needs more love.

It hasn't been edited so I have a feeling I switch between tense a lot, especially since it's third person! Sorry if it annoys anyone!

* * *

 **ONE**

 **W** hen they met it was on his first mission.

He was seven years old and covered in blood that not even the rain could wash away. The team he had been assigned consisted of two boys who were older than him by at least four years and a civilian-born sensei that ignored him out of spite. His father had been furious when he heard who the Hokage had put him with, taking it as another slight against the Uchiha name. It caused him and the elders to become even more restless.

The rest of his team had separated from him during the battle. He had killed three other shinobi and now he was alone. The mission was a simple delivery to a town on the outskirts of the fire country, but they were attacked and then diverted. Now, he was in the territory of their enemy.

Instead of staying in the rain, he followed the tree-line that lead him to a cottage on the outskirts of a village. A girl his age wandered outside. The rain stopped.

"Oh!" she gasped when she noticed him, standing on the outskirts of the clearing. "Are you okay?"

She ran towards him as he fell to his knees, clutching the wound on his side just below his ribs. His hitai-ate didn't deter her from her task as she hefted him up so he was balanced against her. This was strange because the area he was in was part of the Land of Earth and they usually didn't take kindly to visitors from Konoha.

But he was seven years old, the same age as her. She didn't think he would hurt her. She was right.

The girl managed to half drag him inside and place him on a worn-out couch futon, not caring that his wet uniform soaked into the blanket. When she returned again it was with a first aid box clutched to her chest and and old woman following her. The woman blinked in shock, her eyes going from his hitai-ate to his clan symbol.

"What is your name, boy?" she growled as she lifted cut away his shirt to see the wound.

"Daiki."

"Hm." She could tell he was lying but didn't say anything else on the matter. "Natsuhime, fetch some water to clean his wound with. I can't see through all of the blood to start stitching."

"Yes, Obaa-sama."

When the two of them were alone, the old woman glared at him. "I don't know how you got here, Konoha shinobi, but I expect you to leave as soon as you are able. My granddaughter is a kind soul and I am the doctor of this village, so we will heal you out of the goodness of our hearts as long as you promise never to return here."

"I promise."

He had never been very good at keeping promises, _right Sasuke?_

* * *

 **T** he next time they meet he is desperate. He has been an ANBU for ten months now and he is twelve years old. The other children in Konoha who are the same age as him are sitting their graduation exam. He is in charge of assassinating a noble in Iwagakure no Sato.

The mission goes off without a hitch until he is caught by the guards on the way out. Ten jounin-level shinobi. He defeats them but not without being stabbed three times with a nodachi. The wounds are too severe. He won't make it back to Konoha.

His mind goes into auto-drive and suddenly he finds himself in front of a mildly familiar cottage, the sun beating down on his back. The backdoor opens and a girl with sunshine hair steps out to help him inside. Her smile is like a long-forgotten dream. He passes out.

When he awakens he's on a futon in a living room. Someone has taken his mask and bandaged his wounds. He feels more rested than he has in weeks.

"Daiki-kun," the girl from before greets, carrying a tray of food. "I'm glad you're awake. Obaa-sama is tending to her garden but she'll be back soon to check on you. Hopefully you can return to your home soon, your family must be worried."

"H-How…" his voice cracks, a mixture of exhaustion and puberty. The girl looks amused but doesn't laugh.

"You've been asleep for three days, Daiki-kun," she replies gently. "But you'll be okay. It was mostly chakra drainage; the sword didn't pierce anything vital."

"Hn."

A familiar old woman enters then with a basket in the crook of her elbow. She stares at him with a severe expression on her face and he remembers his previous promise. His heart drops into his stomach.

"I will heal you," she says when her granddaughter has left the room for a moment. "But this time you will owe me a favour."

The contents of that favour weren't known until the next time he saw them.

* * *

 **A** t thirteen years old he kills his clan. His mother, his father, his aunts, uncles and cousins. All but his brother were now gone because of his hand. The Sandaime Hokage hands over the money he earns from completing the S-Rank mission before informing him that he must never return to Konoha, his beloved village. In return, he makes the old man promise that his brother will be protected from Shimura Danzo, a man after the sharingan. Now, he has no where to go and his only purpose is to protect the future he sacrificed everything for.

Uchiha Madara had already informed him of the criminal organisation Akatsuki that threatened all the lives in the Elemental Nations. He was welcome to a position there and he was going to take it. In order to protect his village, he would pose as a criminal and anonymously feed back information on the group to Jiraiya of the Sannin.

Before heading to Amegakure no Sato, he takes a detour into the edge of the Land of Earth to the cottage that had perhaps become his own medical station. This time it is raining again, heavily, with thunder and lightening screeching through the sky. When he arrives the backdoor is already open. Not for the first time, he wonders if the summer girl **[1]** is a chakra sensor.

She had grown again, her hair now reaching the top of her thighs and her head brushing the bottom of his nose. Her hand cups his cheek as he stands in front of her, eyes still whirling with the mangekyo sharingan, clothes still stained with the blood of his parents.

"Obaa-sama is gone too," she informs him, like she already knew of his suffering. "She left you a note. Come, you can change in the bedroom. I have clothes ready for you."

"How did you know I was coming?" he asks, belatedly surprised at his own forwardness.

"There are many things that can become known to you if you only listen," is the vague reply. He is too tired to pursue more.

The yukata laid out in the bare room is white with a black obi. He trades it for his ANBU uniform after a shower where the tiles are stained crimson. He doesn't think he will be able to sleep, but he slips into oblivion as soon as his head hits the pillow. There is no sorrow or guilt anymore, only a terrifying numbness.

When he wakes up there is a bowl of rice and fried egg on the nightstand, along with a glass of water and an envelope. The food is adequate but nothing like his mother's. The letter is from the old woman. It's short.

 _Visit my granddaughter once every month, brat. That is all I ask of you. It can get lonely here in the mountain._

 _\- Namikaze Kiyoko_

Namikaze… that name was an integrative part of his history. It was the clan name of the Yondaime Hokage, who had been orphaned at a very young age from memory. He hadn't originated from the Land of Fire- that was obvious because of his chakra nature. But that girl… she was a descendant from him. A cousin of Namikaze Minato.

"Good morning," the voice of his thoughts jolts him out of his reasoning, a sweet smile spread across her face. "How are you feeling, Daiki-kun? You didn't have any injuries, only a severe case of exhaustion." She doesn't ask whose blood it was that covered him if it wasn't his own. He wonders how much her omniscient knowledge told her since she still didn't know his true name.

"Thank you." He isn't sure what else to say, so he simply stands up and, after another glance at the short letter left on the bed, leaves out of the window.

Uchiha Itachi was a man who ran from nothing and everything.

* * *

 **H** e promised once a month but only returns after every three. His time in Akatsuki is spent hunting down bounties with his partner and establishing himself in the hierarchy. With his sharingan, he can beat all of them… until he starts coughing up blood.

Natsuhime knows that he's sick but doesn't forcefully do anything until the two of them are both sixteen years old. She places her hands on his shoulders and forcefully sits him down on the bed they now share. Her palms glow green.

"You need to take care of yourself… Itachi-kun." He never told her his identity. She just knew after a year of visits, he figured one of the trees told her.

When he returns in three months, she hands over pills that will prolong his life if he takes them once a day. He promises that he will but his promises mean nothing.

* * *

 **T** heir child looks like him, but his smile is his mother's. Natsuhime names the boy Uchiha Hikaru.

"His name will always bring him light, even if there is only darkness," was her reasoning. Itachi agrees mostly because he hopes for the same- that his son will grow to be more like Shisui or Kagami and not like the rest of their kin.

He never believed he would love again until he saw her in their bed, sweaty and cradling their son in her arms. The midwife that assisted her had less medical knowledge than even him, but Natsuhime never panicked throughout the entire labour. She seemed at peace and he was sure that was abnormal. Hikaru, on the other hand, doesn't stop screaming until he is placed in his mother's arms. Only there is he content. When Itachi finally holds him, the apathetic look in his eye is far too familiar, especially when it turns into a glare when the baby realises he is not his mother.

"He just needs to get used to you," Natsuhime assures as she takes the screaming child from his arms. "Hikaru is just very attached to me right now."

"Hn." His son is an absolute mama's boy, just like Sasuke had been.

* * *

 **A** t eighteen he sees Sasuke again. He has grown to look more like their mother than their father, and so much like him and Hikaru that he feels sick to the stomach. His brother is still a child so he forces him to see the reality of his life- he is still too weak, especially with the amount of people who will soon be after his eyes. Itachi can't train him himself, he can only protect from the shadows and force him to grow stronger through fear.

* * *

 **I** t took two years for Hikaru to mellow out from his possessive stage, where he wouldn't allow anyone but himself near his mother. As a toddler he proved to be a mixture of his two parents, with Itachi's intelligence and talent but Natsuhime's kindness and affinity for nature chakra. The boy seemed to predict the future without any need of the sharingan he would soon develop and spoke like an educated child. As soon as Itachi turns up for his tri-monthly visit, his son is at the door with a new book in his arms.

When he reads to Hikaru, Natsuhime stands in the doorway of the room with a content smile on her face. In that moment, he knows that she is imagining them as a true family.

But he cannot give that to her, despite how much he loves her.

* * *

 **H** ikaru is three when he receives a sibling and his parents are both nineteen.

Itachi never planned on more children (he didn't even plan his son) and he knew that the more Natsuhime and he had, the more likely they were to be discovered, despite the isolation of their location. The Akatsuki had him so busy that he was only able to visit every four months, sometimes with even longer breaks in between. So, he sees his lover three times during her pregnancy: on the day she tells him, halfway through when the baby begins to kick and the day of her labour.

He is always told the day in advance so he can be present. How she knows when the child will come is not something he understands, but he has faith in her abilities for they had never been wrong before.

It is another boy and the scene is all too familiar for him. He stands with Hikaru in his arms as the midwife hands Natsuhime the blue bundle, this time with hair the colour of sunshine sticking out of the top. His oldest son squirms as thunder bangs outside, curious to see who his mother was holding.

"Hikaru," her tired but sweet voice calls, "come and meet your otouto, Raiden."

Raiden, the god of lightening.

Hikaru's eyes widen as he looks down at the baby who coos in his mother's arms. Itachi finds that his second son has Natsuhime's hair, however, he has his face. Whereas Hikaru has a mix of his mother's features and his own, Raiden seems to be a blonder carbon copy. He feels a small sense of pride as he trades with his lover and holds his youngest son. Raiden stares for a few seconds before breaking out into a soft, peaceful smile.

* * *

 **H** e knows the end is near when he passes out in the kitchen, choking on his own blood. Natsuhime finds him seconds later and manages to save him, but the look on her face when he awakens is heartbreaking. They are barely twenty-one and have been together for over fourteen years, from the moment they saw each other the first time. There is so much yet nothing to say between them.

The boys run in energetically, the dark haired one tugging along the much shyer blonde. He hugs both to his side, praying that they will live happily and away from the war that destroyed him.

* * *

 **S** asuke is coming for him. Before he dies, he whispers the address of the cottage in his ear, promising that it is a place he will find answers. In his final breath he pictures the viridian eyes of his lover.

* * *

 **S** he and Hikaru can both feel when he has departed. They will never have his body so they plant a flowerbed full of purple hyacinths (sorrow), statice (remembrance), sunflowers (dedicated love) and poppies (death and rebirth). Over the months it grows to flourish over the clearing, the flowers turning wild and abundant.

The shrine inside the house has both a single photo of him and a family portrait. Her hand ghosts over her stomach, sad that she will never have a complete one of them. Their last child was a surprise to her, as were all of them, but in a way she is also grateful to have one last piece of him.

Raiden and this new babe will not remember their father but they will always know of him, that is something Natsuhime will make sure of.

* * *

 **I** tachi cannot resist visiting them when he breaks free from the control of the Edo Tensei. He knows he should be assisting the war effort and finding Kabuto, but he has to make sure they are safe. When he reaches the clearing that the cottage resides, he finds that it has had copious amounts of seals placed around it for protection. She had done everything she could to protect them, even though fuuinjutsu was the only shinobi technique she knew. A content smile spreads across his face. The three of them are waiting for him.

The boys pounce as soon as he walks, unhindered, through the protection. He catches them and marvels at how much they can grow in the space of a year. Sorrow pinches his heart because he knows he must say his final goodbye.

When his sons are finished greeting him, Natsuhime walks forward. She clutches a bundle swathed in a pink blanket in her arms. He cannot believe it as she hands over his daughter.

She looks so much like his mother that he feels tears fill his eyes. So much like Uchiha Mikoto, but only if she had eyes the colour of the brightest emeralds.

"Kotoko," he whispers instinctively.

"That's right," Natsuhime replies. "You've gotten much better at listening." Since your death.

He smiled sadly down at her. "Not anywhere as good as you or Hikaru… I don't have much time."

"I know." She cradles his face delicately in her hands. "I have one last thing to ask of you."

"Anything."

"One last family photo. Please."

They take two. In the first, Itachi and Natsuhime stand at the back, Kotoko cradled in his arms. The boys stand in front of them, Raiden leaning against his father's legs and Hikaru against his mother's.

In the second, Hikaru and Raiden are fighting and the two parents are trying to calm down the crying Kotoko.

To Itachi, both are beautiful and he watches as Natsuhime frames them and places them on the mantle. He knows that it is time to leave them.

He kisses Kotoko's forehead, whispers something into the ear of each of his boys before their mother sends them all inside. Only then, when they are alone, does he take her in his arms for one final embrace.

They murmur their love at the same time.

* * *

 **[1]** \- 'Natsuhime' roughly translates to "summer princess", I think, hence why Itachi refers to her as "summer girl".


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: 'Naruto', with all its characters and plot, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

 **TWO**

 **N** ine months later and Kotoko has managed to escape the house and into the flower garden that feels like her papa. Frolicking through the new Spring blossoms, she can sense him watching her with a proud smile on his face. Kotoko knows he is proud because she finally learnt how to walk a few days ago- a feat she achieved before either of her brothers!

When she stops to sit in front of a particularly pretty sunflower, she hears the rustle behind her. A man steps into the clearing, followed by a woman and another man. She quickly pushes herself up onto her still slightly unsteady legs and tries to run back to the house, but one of them catches her.

He's the first one who came into the clearing and he has black hair like Papa, Hikaru and her. She can see that the other man has bright hair like Mama and Raiden, while the woman has _pink_ hair. The woman is instantly her favourite.

The man that looks like her Papa lifts her so she's dangling in the air in front of him. His eyes are two different colours- one is a pretty purple and the other is black. She blinks, confused, as he says something to her.

"What is your name?" he repeats.

"U-"

"Oi, Sasuke! You can't just take someone's kid! What is wrong with you? What is a kid doing here anyway? I thought this was your brother's hidden base!" the blonde man shouts interrupting her.

"Shut up Naruto!" the woman cries and then the blonde man falls to the floor.

Kotoko starts to get scared. Suddenly, the man shakes her to get her attention.

"Your name?" he prompts.

Her eyes fill up with tears. "Kotoko." She can't hold them in and she bursts out crying.

Her mama is out shopping, but Hikaru is in charge of the house and he can hear her. Both her brothers burst out from the backdoor with kunai in their hands when they sense her distress.

"Let go of my sister, you pervy old man!" the oldest boy yells before launching himself at Sasuke's legs.

By the end of the scuffle, each of the strangers is restraining one child in their arms.

* * *

 **N** atsuhime knows something is wrong when she enters an empty house, a sealing scroll full of groceries tucked in the obi of her yukata. After a quick scan, she can sense the chakras of her children outside with three other foreign auras. Fear immediately grips her and she rushes through the back door. If they were enemies of Itachi there was no way for her to defeat them, but she would do her best to give her children time to flee to the village, where a woman she knew promised to arrange for them to go to their uncle in Konoha.

Quickly running outside, she is confronted with the image of her children squirming and fighting against three trained ninja who seemed to be in their teens. Ice runs through her veins.

"Let go of my children, they know nothing of what you seek," she quickly announced, standing proudly in front of them.

The three ninja looked at each other thoughtfully before the one in the middle spoke.

"We will release them after you answer our questions."

"Fine."

"Mama!"

She smiled at her daughter. "Don't worry Kotoko, Mama won't let anything happen to you or your brothers, _who better stop biting right now, we've talked about this Hikaru_ , okay?"

Her oldest son sends her a sheepish look but both stop struggling.

"How did you know Uchiha Itachi?" the man asked, looking impatient.

"I met Itachi when we were seven years old, he was injured and separated from his team on his first mission. My grandmother and I looked after him until he was able to return to Konoha."

"Did he come back here after that?"

"Yes."

"Why?" All three looked confused.

"Because this became his home?" she wasn't sure how to properly phrase their situation. "Who are you people? Are you…" Natsuhime squinted thoughtfully at the dark-haired man. "Are you Uchiha Sasuke?"

"That's none of your-" the pink-haired girl started.

"Yes, I am. And you?"

"My name is Namikaze Natsuhime. I've heard a lot about you, Sasuke-chan. Itachi was very fond of you." She watched in amusement as his eye ticked at the endearment.

"Namikaze…" the blonde boy whispered with a hint of awe in his tone, but she dismissed it.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes before glancing down at Kotoko in his arms. Realisation crossed his expression. "This was his home, you said. So you… were his lover."

"Yes, I was."

"For… For how long?"

Natsuhime looked down with a sad, melancholic smile on her face. "I loved him for fifteen years, Sasuke-chan. From the moment we met to the moment he died. In your arms you hold our youngest child, your niece, Uchiha Kotoko. On your right is our second eldest, Raiden, and to your left is our first born, Hikaru."

Each teen quickly put down their hostage when they became aware of their lineage. Her children ran instantly to her side, Kotoko straight into her arms with a small sob.

"Please, come in for tea. I would rather this be a peaceful meeting instead of hostile. You are the only living relative my children have left, Sasuke-chan."

* * *

 **U** chiha Sasuke, a man who is usually confident about all he does, was completely shocked. What he believed would be a secret base for his brother, the place he resided in when not with the Akatsuki, turned out to be so much more. Nii-san had left him family.

As he looked at the three children sitting across from him, he can see his clan in them. The eldest had Itachi's hair and the onyx eyes of an Uchiha, but his nose was more like Sasuke's and his mouth was his mother's. The second eldest, on the other hand, was like looking at Itachi as a child if he had _Naruto's_ hair, blonde and spiking all over the place. Finally, the youngest resembled his own mother the most, minus the eyes, and hence had the closest features to himself. If they compared pictures of them at the same age, he was sure that his niece looked exactly like him but with green irises and longer hair.

"Here we are. Feel free to pour yourself a cup and have a biscuit." The woman- Natsuhime- set down the tray on the coffee table before taking a seat with her children. Naruto instantly helped himself to the homemade sweets but Sasuke was too busy observing the woman his brother had loved.

She was certainly beautiful, with long sunshine yellow hair and bright green eyes. Her skin was only lightly tanned, though her children where paler. She moved like a woman of grace.

They talked for a few hours about Itachi and how he had lived his life. Sasuke was pleased to know that his brother was not miserable to the end of his time. He had been loved and loved equally as much back.

"Will you come with us to Konoha?" he asked when the conversation was drawing to an end. "They belong there, in the compound of our ancestors. They could enter the academy and learn to protect themselves…"

"I heard that Konoha is still in ruins, Sasuke-chan. There is no point in moving to a place full of rubble. Plus, Hikaru is still too young to enter the academy, he has only just had his sixth birthday," Natsuhime rebutted.

"Excuse me, Natsuhime-san," the pink haired girl she now knew as Sakura interrupted, "but you must know that the Land of Earth is far too dangerous for Uchiha children to live in. We may be in a state of peace now, however, there are still many who would jump at having the power of the sharingan, especially after seeing what it could do in the war."

"You are correct," she sighed, sipping her tea. Kotoko was asleep on her lap and the two boys where playing a board game on the floor, chewing on dango sticks- an obsession they had inherited from their father. "I just don't think we are ready to leave this place yet."

Sasuke nodded in understanding. "They estimate that the rebuilding of Konoha will be finished in a year and a half. I will come again then and see if you are ready."

"Thank you, Sasuke-chan. But don't be a stranger, come visit when you can. You can teach the children many things I cannot."

* * *

 **O** n their way back to the Land of Fire, Naruto stopped them.

"Sakura, could you look up someone's DNA with this?" he held out a golden strand of hair.

"Naruto! How did you get that!" she cried in response, recognising it as Natsuhime's.

"It doesn't matter. Can you, Sakura? That lady, she said her last name is Namikaze. That was the name of my father, too. It could be possible that… she and those children are my family as well."

"Naruto…" She glanced at Sasuke who was looking pensively in the distance, as he had been the whole time, and back to her blonde teammate who had a crushingly hopeful expression on his face. "Yes, I can check it."

"Thank you."

* * *

 **T** he next time Sasuke visits, he comes alone. The oldest of his nephews, Hikaru, shows a great talent for the shinobi arts, much like his father before him (though he was certainly more boisterous about it). However, Raiden, the younger brother, turns out to be a pacifist. No matter how hard he tries, Sasuke is unable to coerce the blonde into sparring against his brother. Natsuhime tells him that it's not in the boy's nature to hurt others, that he only wants to live in peace. He will not be forced to become a ninja if he doesn't want to.

In a way, Raiden is the child who reminds him of Itachi the most.

 _If the choice was yours alone, Nii-san, would you have chosen to be a shinobi?_

* * *

 **O** n Kotoko's second birthday, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto return to the cottage. The rebuilding of Konoha, including the Uchiha District, has finished, so the family would be able to move in at anytime. They don't mention this until after they've cut the little girl's plain vanilla cake (she wasn't a big fan of sweets, unlike her brothers). The three children play on the floor with Kotoko's gifts- a set of fans from Sasuke (traditional present), a pretty hair clip from Sakura (pink, her favourite colour), wooden shuriken from Naruto (who was hit on the head for the violent gift) and a mountain of toys from her mother and siblings.

They draw Natsuhime aside to break the news.

"I want to say that we will stay here," she says, tears in her eyes, "because this place is so special to me… and to Itachi. But Hikaru won't stop talking about how excited he is to enter the shinobi academy, to graduate with a hitai-ate like his Papa. I can't take that away from him because of my own selfishness. My children deserve all the opportunities in life that they wish for."

"So you will come?" Sasuke asks, trying to conceal his eagerness. The district was so quiet, still haunted by the ghosts of the old clan. He hopes that the new blood will bring a greater age for the Uchiha.

"Allow us a month to pack up (and say goodbye) and we will follow you to Konoha."

"Very well. I will prepare a home for your coming."

* * *

 **T** he family of four is moved into the main house of the Uchiha District, which had been rebuilt without its walls. They bring with them all their belongings.

Natsuhime plants one flower of each type from her meadow in the backyard, in hope that her deceased lover had followed them here to watch their children grow. Like before, they flourish into a wondrous garden. Itachi's shrine faces it from the living room.

The blonde is confronted by Naruto soon after the move. He brandishes the test results from the hair he had recklessly stolen.

"We're cousins," he says, tears in his eyes. "Directly. Your mother was my aunt. I've… never had a family before."

He, along with Sasuke, becomes a constant addition to her household, especially during dinner time.

The move to Konoha is not as painful as she believed it would be. Even now, she can sense Itachi's presence near her, living in the house that he grew up in. She doesn't need to imagine his joy in the resurrection of the Uchiha Clan, specifically after Sasuke's first, and only, daughter, Sarada, is born.

As her hair fades to silver, she watches Hikaru become the successor of the Nanadaime Hokage, the first Uchiha to ever claim the title. Alternatively, Raiden finds his skill in the field of arts, painting masterpieces that are sold all over the world, and then in diplomacy. She tries not to cry as he moves to the fire country capital to become the advisor of the daimyo. And her youngest, her beautiful Kotoko, becomes a medic like all the women in their family before her.

When she sees Itachi again, the years feel like nothing between them. They watch as the garden they cultivated so lovingly and sacrificed everything for flourishes.


End file.
